The `alia – double hulled sailing canoe of Samoa

Today, I have selected this image of an ‘alia. In the 1800s, the most prized and finely crafted sea going vessels were alia. In terms of design ‘alia the equivalent of the Fijian drua and Tongan kalia could be very large in size. They had a large sail and two plank built hulls joined together by a deck, almost like a modern day catamaran. As well as being used for transportation, ‘alia were also used in times of war, with somealia even carrying cannons[i]. One `alia seen in Tutuila in the year 1862 was 70 feet long five feet deep and able to transport up to one hundred men. It was also described as sailing “round a vessel in which the consular agent was a passenger, going eight knots”[ii]. So despite their great size they were very manoeuvrable.

This photo appears in Kramer, A, translation T Verhaaven, “The Samoa Islands”, Auckland: Polynesian Press, 1994, p.299, with the title “The catamaran Fa’a’inaelo of Olosega on Manu’a, now fallen to ruin”. Olosega is one of the most eastern islands in the Samoan archipelago. When Kramer travelled to Manu’a, he went to Olosega and found this vessel in fragments. Some of those fragments were ladged with the Museum in Stuttgart, Germany

At the end of the 1800s the remnants of at least four Samoan alia can be verified. There was the Faainaelo photographed at Olosega, Sauaitagata of Saleaula in Savaii, Faataugali of Safune,</span><a title="" href="https://tepapa.wordpress.com/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/paste/pasteword.htm?ver=349-20805#_edn3">[iii]</a><span style="color: #000000;"> Sanaitopata, near Leotele in Savaii, and one photographed with over forty passengers on board and said to have been presented to the German Imperial Governor Solf around the turn of the century[iv].

The building of large vaa such as thealia utilised the skills of many other specialists such as sail makers, rope makers and paddle makers and was probably a great strain on the resources of a village or district. Only strong leaders could organise such energy and resources to take on a building project of this size. The gift of an alia to Governor Solf would have been both expensive and prestigious. Sadly due to the high costs of transporting the vessel to Germany it rotted away on the beach at Sämoa’s capital, Apia. This was probably the last of the full sizealia to be seen.

Here we feature two items from Te Papa collections – a photograph of an ‘alia from the 1800s and a model of a drua the Fijian equivalent of an ‘alia.